Program Overview

An International Foundation Year at our International Study Centre prepares you for your degree at Lancaster University. You will focus on English language, university-level study skills, and academic modules that relate to your degree subject.

Supporting your progression to the University
At the International Study Centre, we take every measure to ensure you are supported in your academic journey. Our programmes allow for increased time spent learning, researching and developing your skills. By studying with us, you will benefit from:

• Formal assessments at the end of each term.
• An improved English language module, Academic English Skills, providing greater opportunity for informal assessments and feedback.
• Combining and reducing the number of module assessments allowing more time to prepare.
• A personal tutorial system with a focus on your academic progress at key points of the academic year, creating action plans based on your performance and progession options.

Social Studies
The International Foundation Year in Social Studies leads to a choice of undergraduate degrees in the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies and the Faculty of Science and Technology. To prepare for your degree, you will study core English language modules and subject modules. Degree options include Philosophy, Sociology, and Film.

You will learn about global issues and contemporary events, including business, culture, politics and environment. Other areas of study include advertising, social media, psychology, and theories that relate to media and modern society.

Linguistics
What is the relationship between accents and social status? How can voice recognition technologies be improved? How does a child learn language? What do the world’s languages have in common, and how are they different? Linguistics offers a fresh insight into the human mind, combining arts and sciences into one captivating subject.

Our approach to linguistics brings to life the theory through exploring real-world implications and applications. We are one of the country’s largest Linguistics and English Language departments, meaning that we have a wide range of optional modules available to you throughout your degree programme. Our world-leading academics cover a very wide range of language study specialisms, and our students benefit from their expertise in lectures, seminars, tutorials, and supervisions. They will teach you from day one in small classes designed to challenge you as a linguist.

Whether you want to understand more about accents or the benefits of multilingualism, how people communicate across cultures or how politicians use words to persuade, we have expertise across a very wide spectrum. We have a large Phonetics Lab and Psycholinguistics Lab which students are encouraged to use throughout their degree programme.

In your first year, the Linguistics module gives you an introduction to the basics, touching on many intriguing and inspiring topics. You also take two other subjects to complement your major. A popular choice for one of these is English Language, but you could select subjects from other related disciplines.

In addition to the core courses about the sounds and structures of language, there are many exciting options for your second and final year. They include Child Language Acquisition, Corporate Communication, Language Change, Forensic Linguistics and Stylistics.  In your final year, you’ll also write your dissertation, exploring a topic that particularly interests you. You will be supported by a supervisor, one of our staff who has expertise in the area you choose to research.

A Linguistics degree is well-suited for careers in education, publishing, the media and information technology. It is highly valued in fields involving international communication, such as science, trade and international relations. We offer a Linguistics degree which teaches you the skills of data analysis, academic writing, and argumentation, and we are confident that our teaching, combined with your willingness to learn, will put you in a strong position to move forward in your career.